Phils bow out

Shane Victorino notwithstanding, the Phillies seem to lack the fiery competitive types. Did that really matter? I don't know; they won 98 games after all. But the Giants seemed to want it more. Now the Giants face the Texas Lees. I don't like the Giants' odds but this scrappy band of misfits has been underestimated before. And, lest we forget, even the Orioles were 6-4 against Texas this season.

Pizza Hut Flashback

No, I'm not talking about my Employee of the Month Award, July 1991, even though I know people love to hear about it. I'm talking about having two pizzas in my car for 8 minutes driving from DiMateo's to Jason's house approximately 52 hours ago and my car still smelling like sausage, cheese and onions. It's amazing actually. The smell is not rotting, or really even dissipating for that matter. It seems like I could turn around and see a fresh baked pie on my back seat. On the drive in to work this morning, it was kind of disgusting; on the way back, it was torture because I was starving and there really was no pizza in the car. I checked.

Survivor New Haven

Members of the Parr tribe -- self-described 'polar bears' -- have a decided advantage. Tribe leader Julie has mandated that the heat cannot come on in the house until the oil company cleans the pipes October 25th. In a surprising move, she bought me a slanket, seemingly increasing the chances that I will live to tribal council on October 26th. However, she slyly has built an alliance of ridicule with Owen, Jack and Sam by yelling at me 'Get in your Slanket!' every time I complain about the cold. Jack and Sam sometimes come over to 'comfort' me with kneading but now I realize they may be trying to kill me.

Distract-o-cats

If Jack and Sam aren't chewing on my computer, they're stepping or sleeping on it or doing this

That kind of aggressive laziness is really distracting when you're up against a deadline.

Bucking the Trend

Check this out:

O's 33 22
jays 29 26
yanks 28 26
rays 28 26
sox 27 26

These are the AL East standings since Buck Showalter took over as manager of the O's on August 2nd. 55 games is a third of the season! Each of the teams (besides the Os) had a chance at the playoffs Aug 2nd and two have since made the playoffs. And the best part is, this is usually the time of the season the Os go from bad to awful: 2002 they finished the season 4-32, 2007 an 11-28 finish, 6-28 in 2008. That's ugly.